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The Late Neolithic Abora settlement site occupies a prominent place in Lake Lubāns micro-region archaeology. The Lake Lubāns wetland, including the Abora site, has been systematically researched by the archaeologist Ilze Biruta Loze in 1962–1990 and episodically in 1999–2012. Besides the settlement culture layers, the Abora site includes human burials as well, providing both osteological and archaeological material. Altogether, 61 burials have been excavated within the settlement territory. The Abora settlement is a tempting site for further investigations of complexities of the transition to farming in the Late Neolithic in Latvia. This paper represents an attempt to apply palaeodemographic methodology, 14C dating, FRUITS analysis and estimates of the freshwater reservoir effect to preserved osteological and archaeological material of Abora site and discusses the results in context with the previous data and archaeological interpretations. The new radiocarbon dates of the human bones generally correspond with the previous absolute dating of the site, spanning from 3484–3102 calBC to 2137–1925 calBC. The adult and adolescent isotopic data (29 individuals) generally corresponds very well with the local Lake Lubāns wetland isotope ecology. However, it contradicts the previous interpretations that overemphasised the role of domesticated animals and cultivated crops in the Abora human subsistence strategies. The new data show that the majority of individuals had a freshwater diet and others — a mixed freshwater/terrestrial diet.

Until recently, there was a lack of radiocarbon (14C) dates from the Bronze and Earliest Iron Age (1800–500–1 BC) burial sites in Latvia. The chronology of the sites was assessed on the basis of archaeological analogies with neighboring regions and typological studies of the rather meagre grave inventory. In order to establish a firm foundation for an absolute chronology of burial sites and to better understand changes in mortuary practices during the period, sequences of samples from various burial sites have been dated. In this paper we report 48 14C dates from 12 different sites and discuss them in the context of previously established archaeological chronologies. 14C reservoir effects are addressed: regarding FRE, stable isotope analysis is helpful; however, more data should be gathered in future research. In some cases, the new dates are in accord with previous chronologies, while in other cases some widely accepted assumptions may need to be revised. The new dates have proved false several previous assumptions about both the dates of individual graves and whole sites. Based on the 14C dates, we model the chronological spread of burial barrows in Latvia along waterways, the earliest examples appearing in coastal western Latvia.

Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; > 300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence from graves and nearby settlement layers show that throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources for subsistence, with a particular emphasis on fishing. Dietary stable isotopes (δ 15 N and δ 13 C) from human remains show significant dietary variation within the Zvejnieki population, in terms of access to and dependence on freshwater and marine species (Eriksson 2006); we provide new stable isotope data for another 13 individuals. Elsewhere, we have proposed a method to correct the calibrated radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates of prehistoric burials in the Lake Burtnieks region for dietary freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE/MRE) (Meadows et al. 2015). Here, we use this method to correct the dates of 40 individuals (including 3 from the nearby 4th millennium shell-midden site, Riņņukalns) for whom we now have both 14 C and stable isotope data, and test whether there is any evidence that human diets changed over time, rather than simply varying between contemporaneous individuals. Three interesting transitions can be discerned: a shift away from high-trophic-level foods in the earlier 6th millennium cal BC, a diversification of diets in the late 5th millennium, with both more terrestrial and more coastal foods consumed, and a narrowing of diets in the mid-4th millennium, to concentrate on freshwater resources.